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Welcome
to
Circle K Yorkies
Yorkshire Terriers were the #2 most
registered dog in the US in 2006, 2007 and
2008
Yorkshire Terriers
50 pounds of attitude in a 5 pound
package.
Although yorkies are members of the toy
group, they are true terriers, brave, determined, inquisitive
and energetic. The yorkie's compact size makes them ideal for
apartment living and easy to carry along on outings. Although
they love to go out on daily walks they can get plenty of
exercise indoors. They might be small in stature, but they
have large personalities and will frequently dominate even the
large breeds. They are very inteligent and require a strong
(human) pack leader or they will take over control of the
entire household. Yorkies are extremely social and require
daily interaction with their humans. For families that are
gone for long periods during the day I recommend having a
second small breed dog.
Because the yorkie's luxurious long silky
coat is hair and not fur, they make ideal pets in homes where
alergies are a concern. For low maintenance they can be kept
in a puppy cut, but even in full coat, a weekly bath and
brushing is generally all it takes to keep their coats looking
beautiful.
According to the AKC the ideal size range for a healthy
yorkie is from 4 to 7 pounds. There are breeders that breed
for less than 4 pounds but that creates a very fragile dog
that can easily break a leg just from jumping off of the sofa.
Although they are small they are still dogs and they love to
run and jump and wrestle with other dogs.
An occasional tiny puppy in a litter is
normal. Responsible breeders will make sure they go to a good
pet only home. Responsible Breeders will not deliberately
breed for the tiny size. The same gene that makes a puppy
abnormally small can also be the cause of health issues. As
with abnormally small people they can have a chemical
imbalance that gives them a shorter than normal life
expectancy.
Parti Colored Yorkies
The Parti colored Yorkshire Terriers have
only been recognized since the early 1980's. And have only
been accepted by the AKC for about 3 years. Before that time
they were either given away as pets, or perhaps even, in the
earlier times, culled at birth. Parti colored yorkies are the
result of breedng two traditional colored yorkies, who both
happened to carry the parti color producing gene. One cannot
tell by looking at a carrier that they are a carrier because
most of them are traditionally colored and many are
Champions.
The parti color producing gene is a
recessive gene and it will not produce a parti colored
offspring unless the gene is carried by both parents. However,
the gene can be passed along from one parent to their
offspring, completely unnoticed for many generations, only
surfacing when a carrier is mated with another carrier.
Unusual traits
such as this are more likely to surface in champion lines
because it is not uncommon for show breeders to practice close
breeding or inbreeding, of their champions, in an attempt to
reproduce the desired traits found in the champion dog.
Just exactly
when and where and how this parti gene became part of the
Yorkshire Terrier makeup is unknown and the issue has become a
great source of controversy. There is a great deal of
speculation and if you research long enough you will no doubt
uncover many different theories, but the truth is, they are
all just theories. No one knows for sure and if someone does
know, they're not telling.
They AKC DNA'd 42 litters and their
parents before they were satisfied that these dogs were not
mixed with another breed.
Parti colored yorkies have been appearing
for a long long time, but no one with a champion dog would
ever want to own up to it for fear of being banned from the
Yorkshire Terrier Club of America (YTCA)
There are
Yorkshire Terrier breeders who will argue that the parti
colored yorkies are not pure yorkies and should not be
registered as pure bred dogs. However these same breeders
could have a traditional colored carrier, perhaps even a
champion, that came from the same litter as a parti colored
and they would never know that it carried the parti gene. Is
it any less a yorkie if it carries two parti genes instead of
one parti gene and one traditional colored gene?
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